Artist’s Marginalia

The artist’s marginalia consists of drawings made by Arshile Gorky in the margins of publications in his library and on his collection of clippings and reproductions (i.e. ephemera). Each marginalia drawing has been assigned a number, starting with D4000. Gorky’s library publications and ephemera, including those that do not feature marginalia drawings, are listed on the Publications and Ephemera pages of the Resources section.

Gorky, a fervid and near-compulsory draughtsperson, frequently used various ephemeral and non-traditional supports. According to his early girlfriend Marny George, he was "always drawing on everything and anything he could lay his hands on.” Such stories are recounted by Gorky’s contemporaries in every period of his life. For instance, it is believed that in 1921 Gorky was fired from his first job at the Hood Rubber Company in Watertown, Massachusetts, for incessantly drawing on the company’s shoe frames. Examples of Gorky’s other ephemeral supports include: flyers, napkins, doilies, receipts, menus, envelopes, and even the boards in shirts returned from the laundry. His drawings on these types of supports are documented in the Catalogue section of the catalogue raisonné. 

Excepting three drawings on an issue of the New York tabloid PM Daily, dated November 19, 1941 (see D0861, D0862, and D0863), as well as two drawings on a Picasso exhibition catalogue (see D0395ab and D0425) that Gorky gifted to Michael West, all of Gorky's drawings on the publications in his library and on the ephemera in his studio at the time of his death, are catalogued here.